


Light It Up, Baby

by Mogadorian_Wolf



Category: The Lorien Legacies - Pittacus Lore
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 06:36:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5081410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mogadorian_Wolf/pseuds/Mogadorian_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a bad break up Nine and Daniela meet at a party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light It Up, Baby

I hadn’t wanted to go to the senior end of the year party. Mark’s break up was still an angry scar across my heart. He’d dumped me for some pretty little cheerleader chick, not even a day ago. Marina and Maren Elizabeth wouldn’t allow me to mope while they went to show off their perfect relationship. The party was Maren’s idea. It was probably the worst idea we could’ve ever come up with.

“Hey babe.”

I turned to deck whoever had the arrogant nerve to call me that and found myself face to face with Mark’s equally arrogant and obnoxious brother, Stanley. He had a matchbox in his hand, but no cigarettes and a troublesome smirk on his face. No one doubted that he would’ve been caught up in some gang by now if he hadn’t been tangled up into a friendship with the school’s Romeo. He sure did love that bad boy look. I wasn’t even sure how John Smith could tame him so easily. Either way I chose not to deck him, even if I hated his knowing smirk.

“I don’t smoke,” I growled at him, snatching the matchbox from him anyways. If he had one available I might not have been as opposed as I wanted to be. A slow grin spread across his face, and he shoved his hands into his pockets with a casual shrug.

“Heard what happened. You might not be able to light my brother on fire- probably get arrested if you tried; I would pay to see that. But you can do something equally harmful to him.” He held out a picture of Mark’s dream girl- the unattainable Sarah Hart, and Romeo’s Juliet. He’d only dated me to try and get her attention. Of course that had so failed. The player.

It took a couple of tries before I could actually get the nerve up to take it, like it might disintegrate in my hand, or worse, come to life. In the picture, Mark was actually with her, smiling. A football player and a cheerleader, could you get anymore cliché than that? I was the exact opposite of her, the kind of girl you’d see doodling on her paper more often than paying attention in class, chopped and braided hair, torn-up jeans and heavy metal shirts.

When I looked back up, Stanley was staring up at the sky with a wistful, longing look. No doubt he wished to have her just like every other guy in school. He saw me looking and blushed before hiding back behind his brash exterior, “It’s the only picture of her he still has. The loss of it would… be a devastation his soul just wouldn’t be able to bare. Nice shirt by the way.”

It was Breaking Benjamin a handy down; I’d never actually got to see them. I still nodded, “Thanks. So you’re going to let me burn your brother’s dreams. Tear his own heart out… like he did to me?” I studied him out of the corner of my eye as I held the picture up.

A wicked smile darkened his face and he nodded toward the bonfire, leaping toward the night sky, “I never really liked him anyway. Besides I’m in the mood for burning some hearts.”

We drifted over there, and wordlessly, I handed him the picture so I could strike a match. There was a glimmer in his eyes when I struck it and held it up against the bonfire. It burned bight, like the promise of a new beginning. I held the matches out, and he traded me for the picture with a little grin, “Light it up, Baby.”

The fire spread along the picture’s edges, eating at it faster than I would’ve expected. In that moment I could see all of Mark’s dreams burning. I was the one squeezing his heart to ask, and I tossed the burning picture into the bonfire with a thrilled laugh. Stanley laughed with me, flipping the fire off as if it were some great offender.

“I get the next one,” He declared, pulling out another picture for execution out of his pocket. I plucked the picture out of his hand as he struggled to pull out a match without dropping it. For a weird moment, I thought I saw Stanley blush. I studied the picture, hoping to get a new insight into my ex’s brother. There was a pretty little brunette beside him in a skimpy little cheerleading outfit. It seemed like a happy picture, with his arm thrown around her and a smile on both of their faces.

He snatched it back from me with a scowl, before letting the fire claim it. There was a dark look in his eyes as he let the picture spiral toward its final resting place, eyes locked on the fire. Whatever had been going on between us, I felt like I just stepped over the line. I tucked my hair behind my ear, nervously, “So who was she?”

“My ex, Maddie. Dumped me right before this party. Noticeably neither she nor my brother are here.” He gestured widely around us before shoving his hands back in his pockets, glowering at the fire as if all this was its fault.

I stared at the fire with him for a moment before venturing to ask, “Got anything else to burn?”

He was startled into a laugh and gave me that I’m-trouble smile that some girls fainted for, and I always considered an annoying feature unless I was a part of causing the ensuing chaos, “Got a thing for fire?”

I happily punched him, resulting in more laughter. He held his hand up for surrender, a set of keys dangling from them. That was a slick trick of hand. He grinned as if he knew it, “Mark’s keys to his favorite truck.”

“Those won’t burn in the fire,” I pointed out with an addicted grin. A little light shone in his eyes, “Oh I know, but it’ll be real fun when he’s trying to find them in the morning. It’d serve him right, too. Hurting a pretty girl like you.”

I laughed, totally ignoring the last part- he was probably drunk and hitting on anyone who’d take him, but I threw those shiny keys right into the fire with glee, “I wish I could burn down his entire house.”

“Hey now!” Stanley protested with a barely suppressed laugh. “I live there too, you know.”

“The fire will only claim his stuff, completely destroying his life and all of his idiotic dreams,” I told him with a wicked grin. He grinned back with a double thumbs up, “Awesome.”

Maybe it hadn’t been such a bad idea to come to this party. I almost relaxed into the boy next to me, but I knew better than to fall for the guy that spelled nothing but trouble. It seemed like he was struggling with something too, as he almost put his arm around me but faltered. After a moment, he shifted, “Want me to get you a drink?”  
My eyes narrowed at him, “Are you hitting on me? Because I’m not falling for another douchebag. I made one mistake; it won’t be repeated. You can’t just call me things like pretty, insult my ex and hope to walk away with my heart. I’m not some way to get back to your ex.”

A little smile tugged at his lips, “I was just offering you a drink. You can say no.” He turned as if to leave me, then paused and turned back around with a deadly serious light in his eyes, “Also, Daniela, I’m nothing like my brother. I know a keeper when a see one and a lost cause when it needs to be called. And anyone who wants to get back to an ex like Maddie should probably be checked into a mental ward.”

He really started to leave at that. I stared up at the black sky, really debating it for a moment. Girls always talked about how cool he was and how much they’d want to date him, but I’d never really heard anything about him being with anyone. It was just a drink. Before I lost my nerve, I called him back, “Hey, Stanley?” He looked at me, and I had to be mistaken that he looked wary. “Get me a punch.” A grin crossed his face, and he actually jogged to comply.

I actually smiled at him. Who knew he could occasionally be a dork? Then again, he was the one that had invited a couple of the outcasts to his house while Mark had over his girlfriend. He’d also been the one who introduced Cody to John’s group of friends, moved him from the dark into the light. Not everyone knew about that. Mark had ragged heavily on his brother after that episode. Maybe there was more to the bad boy image than others saw.

“Your punch, my lady.” He gave a little bow and holding it out to me with a ridiculous grin. I took it, “Try treating me like a princess, and I’ll show you why they don’t appear on modern T.V.”

He laughed, and we both turned to stare at the fire in thought. The scar was still there, puckered and gaping, but no longer bleeding, just waiting for the opportunity to open up again, “I don’t want to be a way for someone to try attracting their ex-girlfriend. Ever.”

He took a sip of his own drink, and I could feel him studying me out of the corner of his eye, “Yeah? Well my last girlfriend was a bitch. I don’t want a repeat.”

“So we’re both a couple of broken hearts burning memories,” I summed up, shoving my own hands in my pockets. Stanley shrugged and stared down at his shoes. When he looked up, it was with a wicked grin, “You know there’s more havoc we can wreck. Hurt them more than just burning memories. Want to be a couple of delinquents for the night?”

I grinned back at him, taking his hand, “If we get arrested, I’m blaming you.”

He just laughed, leading me away from the party, “Now where’s the fun in not doing a couple acts questionable in legality? We’re a couple broken hearts with some fire. And you know what they say about playing with fire.”

It was maybe the best line I’d ever heard. He kissed me outside his convertible, and as right as it felt, I felt the need to pull away and remind him, “I’m not a cheerleader, you know.”

“I know.” He smiled softly like he really meant it. “It’s kind of refreshing. And if my jackass brother can’t see how beautiful you are, Daniela, then he never did deserve you. Besides Maddie would never light up the night with me.”

He kissed me again, and I had to make a note to introduce him to my girlfriends. Right after we finished making out on his car and punishing our exes. We broke before it could get to heavy, scurrying into his car as he let out a whoop and cried, “Let’s light it up, baby!”


End file.
